You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Parents are the best teachers.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. You should give reasons for your answer using your own ideas and experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Model Answer 1:
(Agreement: Parents are the best teachers)
‘Whether parents are our best teachers or not’ is a never-ending debate and people are divided both in favour and against this argument. Both have a very strong contribution and influence on a child’s learning but in my opinion, parents overtake the teachers in terms of teaching their children.
First of all, I would like to point out that a teacher is not merely a person who takes a text book and read texts from there to a student. Rather a teacher is someone who devotes his/her times to teach someone everything that someone needs to know to advance to next step. Morality, intricacies of life, subject matter knowledge, art, science, history, value of time etc. are something that can’t be taught through academic books and a good teacher is someone who teaches someone these all.
Now that we know the true responsibility of a teacher, we can easily compare our parents and teachers. The things that we learn from our parents are far more important than what we learn from our teachers. I am not denying the invaluable knowledge we learn from our teachers through our academic years, but what we learn from our parents are incomparable. We learn to survive, talk, and distinguish well from bad, values of life, morality and such important other things from our parents. We are the true reflection of our parents and our characters are shaped by their personality and behaviours. Later the teachers help us to enhance our knowledge, horizon and our view of life but the very foundation and ground are made by our parents.
The parents sacrifice so many things of their life just to ensure a better life for us and nothing in this whole world could even be compared with their sacrifice for us. Think of a student who is unable to pay his/her monthly school fees would be cast away from the school and the beloved teachers would scarcely be there to help him/her. On the other hand, the parents would always be there with their every possible effort to help the child.
In summary, the things we learn from our teachers are important for our lives and with those valuable lessons and knowledge we prepare for the future but the things we learn from our parents shapes who we are, who we become and their contribution is much more important compared to the contribution of the traditional academic teachers and that’s why in my opinion parents are best teachers.
(This model answer has been prepared by the site developer. However, please note that this is just one example out of many possible answers.)
Model Answer 2:
(Agreement: Parents are the best teachers)
Parents can be the best teacher for every child coming on this earth. I agree with this statement as no learning institution can be compared with the parents as they are role models for their children since they open their eyes in this world till they are fully grown up and matured.
To start with when the child is born he sees his parents as his guide, mentor & teacher who will teach him how to speak, eat, drink, live, wear, interact etc. No one will be with him when he is crying for anything it will be the parents who will be with him for every problem and his / her every need. Even during his education days he will observe and learn that the school although is the learning institution but the moral & ethical values learned from parents are far greater than any learning center and parents will be the one who wants the children to be the best in this world and they want their children not to repeat the mistakes that they have done in their lives which any learning institution won’t care for as they can’t give individual attention to every student.
On the other hand, we see that generally the children who are orphans or could not get the attention from their parents don’t have that foundation of ethical, moral and social values as compared to the ones who have been trained by their parents despite all of them have gone to schools, colleges etc. The only difference between them is parents.
If the parents are not well educated they could still prove to be good teachers for their children but that will be of less fruitful from the highly educated parents as educated and learned parents will have more vision and more horizon as compared to the unlearned.
I would like to conclude with the statement that parents can be a turning point for his child if he tries to teach every step of living this life.
(by Mubashir Noorani)
Idea Generation for this IELTS Essay:
Essay Type: Argumentative Essay (Agree/ Disagree)
Main question of this IELTS Essay:
A. Are parents the best teachers for their children?
Agreement: Parents are the best teachers.
- Parents are more engaged in their children’s activities than any other person because they spend more time with them than even teachers in schools, so they can find more deeply their children’s personality weaknesses.
- Sensationally, they feel closer to their children than any other people are. Bonding helps mothers to love their children more than any other else.
- We learn to survive, talk, and distinguish well from bad, values of life, morality and such important other things from our parents.
- To care about their children, parents take more responsibility. They feel more responsibility to protect their children from criminals.
- Parents are more devoted than the teachers.
- Parents would be with a child no matter what.
- We learn almost every aspect of life in our childhood from our parents.
- There is not any interruption in their teaching, and they continuously teach their children. This can lead them to become more trustful than teachers.
- Parents understand the children better and thus play a greater role.
- Parents are more capable of instructing the children and guide them well.
- It could be far more economical. Instead of spending tremendous money on tuition, Family can save it.
Disagreement: Parents are NOT the best teachers.
- In terms of the theoretical and academic knowledge, parents are usually less professional than the instructors teaching in schools.
- Parents are less familiar with the latest training techniques which other tutors use.
- A huge generation gap between them, parents and children, may affect the parents’ performance to become perfect teachers.
- A conflict between parents and children in schooling may negatively affect their emotional relationship.
- Morality, intricacies of life, subject matter knowledge, art, science, history, value of time etc. are often taught by the teachers.
- Parents are sometimes too blind to notice the bad side of their children. In this case, teachers make neutral judgments.
- Experiences learned from life have a far greater role in life than the things we learn from our parents.
[The above points should be helpful to aid you generating your own ideas and then turning them into a nicely written IELTS Essay. Add any point you think we have missed in the comment section.]
Model Answer 3:
(Disagreement: Parents are NOT the best teachers)
Parents teach a lot to the children and the ground made by them shapes the future of the children. On the other hand, someone learns throughout his life and thus become the person he really is. In this learning process, he himself contributes the most and teachers, friends, nature, books, academic education are important as well. Though parents are very good teachers, in my opinion, they are not the best teacher for someone and the person himself is the best teacher for him.
After we learn to talk, walk and basic morality and intricacies of our life, we start going to school and there we learn new things every day. The book, the teachers, the friends and the environment shapes what we become. Parents teach their kid to a bright, good fellow and yet there are lots of immoral and corrupted people who actually were transformed badly by themselves. So someone himself is the best teacher for him. Besides this the things we learn from our life experiences, teachers and books become far more important that what we learned in our infant time.
Parents do their fine duty to raise a child to become a good adult and later he gets the education and experiences from his life and school play the vital role for his future.
In terms of being our teachers, our experience and nature play an utmost important role. We learn so many things from our surroundings and nature is a silent teacher who widely opens the mystery and significance of our life.
The things we learn from our parents are of course important to our life but they are rather some righteous lessons and good advises. Later in our life, we face the real situations and learn the true lessons from our experience and in terms of learning this is the most important part.
So considering all of the above, I would like to opine that, parents are very important teachers for us but never the best teachers.
Model Answer 4:
(Disagreement: by Marlar Tinaye)
Our parents are the first teachers. They teach us how to talk and many other things which are vital for leading our lives. There are many different parents who instruct the children and handle their lives. Some parents want their child to conquer more than the efforts. They try to be the best teachers for the children. They pay more attention and thus there are some conflicts between children and parents. So the child looks for the avenue to escape. It makes the child walk on the wrong road. Teachers at a school have the chance to guide many children. So, they can compare different situations and potential of children more than parents can do. So, they are more capable of instructing and guiding them properly.
In our town, we can see many negligent parents. They leave their children in another house and sometimes the children play on the road and hurt themselves and become the victims of accidents. Some concerned people have to return the child to his home back. Parents are not teaching and showing the preventive measures and dangerous situations to the children. But some parents can become better teachers for the child and thus prevented tragic consequences.
Some parents will deliberately instruct the child in some dangerous attitude or philosophy and they let the child adhere to evil things. So the children enjoy more in risky conditions and grow up to be a very perilous person.
One, therefore, should not presume that parents are always the best teacher. Sometimes they are the worst teachers a child might have.
Model Answer 5:
(Agreement: Parents are the best teachers)
The responsibility of child development is often a subject that is discussed and debated. While some would argue that since a child spends maximum time at school, the teachers should take responsibility for ensuring proper development of children. However, I strongly believe that it is parents who are the best teachers and they play a very important role in the manner a child is groomed.
To begin, parents are the ones who could better control the disciplinary aspects of the child. The manner in which a child manages his time, right through the day is better judged and analysed by parents. This provides them with an opportunity to ensure that the child has the right balance of all activities, be it studies, outdoor activities, indoor activities and reading.
Research has indicated that children do get addicted to one kind of activity, which is not good for the overall development of a child. For example, there are several instances where children spend more time say on computer games. This can result in the child losing out on social skills. Further, such a child might eventually turn out to be a loner, with very limited ability to interact, socialise and communicate with people.
Additionally, for a good healthy living and a steady mind, children need to have a healthy and balanced diet. Parents do have better control over this aspect and can ensure that a child gets a balanced diet with the right nutrients. Research has shown proper upbringing of children by parents can lead to lower crime rates, lower health problems like obesity and higher literacy rate.
To conclude, there might be some people who argue that schools are the places where teaching happens, but this is not always the case. Nevertheless, the role of parents is even more critical in ensuring that children imbibe the right values, morals and ethics. This will go a long way in benefiting not just the individual but also the society.
[by Rajes]
Model Answer 6:
(Agreement: Parents are the best teachers)
Nowadays, we are living in modern life and much more facilities in different fields which make the life easier for the people, on the other hand, the life is full of challenges and situations facing us, especially dealing with the society, different people, different cultures and ages.
Apparently, when we have started life trip we came with zero experience and the lucky one of us who came to the life with guides people who arrived before him and people dedicate their times, power and feelings to help, those are good parents.
Parents are teachers, they always teaching us in many ways intentionally and unintentionally, however, vocal guidelines and acting in daily bases activities are the ways of the life experience knowledge transfer regardless different culture, language, facilities or economy level of the family. But in my opinion, in modern life, the education level of the parents is a major factor and considered in the quality of the knowledge and experience transfer to the children.
There are many teachers around the world which can teach you lot of life experience but parents always special and the flavour of the knowledge you gain is unique and neat because it always comes with the feelings which are impossible to get from other teachers. Regardless the knowledge is good or bad, right or wrong parents are best teachers. Finally, you will discover and decide about our life when we reach the rational age. And when we become parents for the newcomers, we would make the best decision for them.
[ byBader Dokhan]
Model Answer 7:
(Agreement: Parents are the best teachers)
No one on this earth could deny the fact that parents are the messengers of god. I firmly believe that I am really blessed to have such supporting parents. They are the treasure hunt of knowledge. I personally consider them as the best teachers.
Right from childhood, they teach us in each and every phase of life. When we are kids, they train us in all kinds of activities crawling, walking and talking. During the schooling, they educate us on the difficult subjects. When we grow up a bit, they assist us in choosing the right path. They support our career aspirations. They teach us what is good and what is bad.
In addition to the above, parents enlighten us by teaching moral values. They explain us their past experiences in life from which we can extract some of the do’s and don’ts. We learnt a lot from them on the culture and traditions of our region. They advise us in many tough situations.
In my opinion, a teacher is not someone who merely teaches us how to read, write and to gain an academic degree. Rather this person teaches us the morality, value of life and inspires us to live a positive life. In this regards, parents put more emphasis and effort that a teacher we find in our school. In our life, we learn about life from our parents more than from anyone else.
On the other hand, some of the students deny this fact as they may not consider the abilities of their children and force them to take subjects of their choice. They feel that parents should take into account their opinions and discuss with them the pros and cons of their choice.
To conclude, I strongly affirm that no teacher in this world can be as best as our parents. We should respect their opinions and abide by their valuable suggestions.
[by Sreelekha]
Model Answer 8:
(Disagreement: Parents are NOT the best teachers)
Teaching is believed to be the toughest profession in the world. Not because they are in a physically challenging job or a hostile work environment but because they have a responsibility to shape the behaviour and the thought-process of children. Children have extremely fragile mindsets and tend to emulate the behaviour of people surrounding them. Given the situation, they are extremely prone to behave as their parents whom they observe on a daily basis. Hence, in a way, parents are also teachers on a full-time job.
However, I do not agree with the statement that parents are the best teachers. Different children have different cognitive abilities and hence different learning styles. Research also proves that in order to maximise the learning experience of any individual, it is important to facilitate the learning process as per the learning style. Teachers are professionally qualified and experienced to do this job better. They have both the skills and knowledge to excel in this as compared to parents.
Parents, on the other hand, are not trained to understand the learning style of their children. They usually use positive reinforcement in way of rewards and negative reinforcements in the manner of punishments to teach their children. In this way, they may unknowingly end up hampering the development of their children by enforcing a particular way of learning.
I believe if parents could be coached on different ways in which their children could be taught, they would be the best teachers.
[by Jayita Das]